Kallas: Drone Strike on Train in Volyn Region Was Meant to Intimidate Ukraine’s Allies
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that a Russian drone strike on a passenger train bound for Warsaw in Ukraine’s Volyn region was intended to intimidate Western countries and persuade them to stop supporting Kyiv. The train’s locomotive was hit two kilometers from the Ukrainian-Polish border.
As Politico Europe reports, Kallas told journalists after arriving in Finland for the Arctic Summit that the attack was meant to make Western countries refrain from traveling to Ukraine to demonstrate support.
Strike on the locomotive
Ukraine’s state railway operator confirmed that a drone struck the locomotive of a passenger train. According to its data, no one was injured in the attack.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The strike occurred shortly after a train carrying Western officials and advisers traveled along the same line. Ukraine’s state railway operator said that the Russian drone’s target could quite likely have been the diplomatic train. Its passengers included former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former CIA Director David Petraeus, and UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.
Officials’ reactions
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also said that the strikes were aimed at intimidating Europeans, discouraging them, and dividing them. The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the aggressor state, for its part said that it struck railway infrastructure in western Ukraine, which it claimed was used to transport military cargo from Europe.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on allies to increase sanctions pressure on the Russian regime following the border strikes. Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had warned of possible threats to Ukraine’s border crossings with other countries, including Poland.
